Hate The Box? Use It To Help Business Thinking Bloom

You try to think outside the box. But some boxes are unavoidable. Consider deadlines, budgets and disagreements. Short staffing. The economy. Ethics. Exhaustion. Crisis. Customer concerns.

Smart innovators learn how to use these boxes to make sure new business thinking blooms. Start celebrating the things that limit you, and go from there. "Constraints fuel creativity," Seth Lederman, a physician and CEO of prescription development firm Tonix Pharmaceuticals (TNXP), told IBD. "Think about Michelangelo and marble. The marble had a flaw in it, and he worked around it."

 Think molecular. Big ideas tend to get all the emphasis, but Schenck challenges that knee-jerk thinking. "It's the constant implementation of small ideas that ultimately wins the day," he said.

Giant breakthroughs are often countered by the competition before they can hit the marketplace, he says. Then there are the customers, prone to balk at big swings.

Think New Coke in 1985. Executives thought the product update was sweet. Wrong, shouted loyal swiggers. "Coca-Cola (KO) managed to get back on its feet quickly," Schenck said. But the company learned a lesson: Unbridled, wild ideas can be dangerous. You must have a big enough operation to swallow them if they go sour.

 Man up. At the same time, you don't want to avoid big what-ifs. "There is a difference between being skeptical and being terrified," Schenck said.

 Check the clock. You don't need weeks or years to crack an innovation and fry it for the marketplace. "Few things can constipate a company or a person like the assumption that innovation is a time-eating process," Schenck said.

 Smash. "While there might not be any genuinely new ideas, there is an infinite supply of combinations of ideas," Schenck said.

The airplane took flight because someone thought about uniting a bird's wing with an engine.

 Stoke the beautiful mind. "It's not just the Jonas Salks and the Walt Disneys of the world who have this wonderful capability," Schenck said. "You are a fundamentally creative person with a power to innovate, and once you know how to tap into that power, it can change your life forever."

Anyone searching for insight into the state of the nonalcoholic beverage industry should take a gander at last month's earnings from Coca-Cola, the global soft-drink giant that finds itself awash in challenges. On the bright side, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) beat consensus earnings and sales estimates when ...

A raft of warnings from U.S. multinationals about their Chinese operations may indicate China's transition away from investment-focused growth is on track — but not going as smoothly as official data suggest. In the past week, Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) cited reduced construction work in China ...

The most anticipated feature of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 10, set for release on Wednesday, isn't some new application. It's the return of the traditional Start screen, which Microsoft ditched in August 2012, with Windows 8. For that reason, Windows 10 is a lot like Coca-Cola Classic. Let ...

In the spirit of the Pepsi Challenge, we'll take a look at Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and PepsiCo's (NYSE:PEP) earnings, fundamentals and stock price action. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola on Wednesday topped views with a 2% slip in Q2 comparable earnings to 63 cents on a 3% revenue dip to $12.16 billion. ...

07/23/2015 06:35 PM ET

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